Day 7 Markina to Gernika 17.35 miles (27.92 Km)

We are walking in the Basque Country of northern Spain. Today, we are walking toward Gernika (or Guernica), a town of historical significance. During the Spanish Civil War, the city was bombarded by Nazi German and Italian Fascist forces in 1937. This attack inspired Pablo Picasso’s iconic painting Guernica. Picasso’s artwork captures the atrocities of the attack. Since we start walking in the Basque Country, there is information about the civilians who died in the battles between the Nationalists and the Republicans; sometimes the information is in the forests or the towns. Years ago, I learned about the plight of the people trying to escape Spain and being detained in France. Some of my friends’ grandparents were in detention camps before they were granted permission to travel to Mexico.

It is important to remember that less than a century ago, people were using these trails to escape a fascist government.